One of the most basic tasks for managing a website is learning how to check website traffic, but many business owners find tracking traffic and search results daunting. Learning how to monitor your website traffic alerts you to technical or content issues that may need attention, allows you to track marketing and promotional campaigns, and gives you valuable user insight. Once you have a great website traffic checker and learn the basics, watching activity on your site can even be fun—and even addictive.
Specifically, you should be monitoring three main attributes of website traffic: how many visitors are coming to your website, how they are finding your site, and how users are engaging with your site and either bouncing or converting. There are many powerful, easy-to-use, and free website traffic checker tools to help you monitor results. Check out our top nine recommendations for free and cheap tools:
- Semrush: Best free traffic checker for ranking on Google
- Google Analytics: Best for accurate Google web traffic data
- SE Ranking: Best for checking local web traffic and rankings
- Google Search Console: Best for searching website traffic keywords
- Serpstat: Best for competitor keyword analysis
- Ahrefs: Best for checking web traffic on multiple search engines
- Similarweb: Best for checking competitor website traffic
- Ubersuggest: Best low-cost website traffic checker
- Monsterinsights: Best for WordPress website traffic
- Best Cheap or Free Website Traffic Checkers at a Glance
- 1. Semrush: Best Free Website Traffic Checker for Ranking on Google
- 2. Google Analytics: Best for Most Accurate Google Traffic Data
- 3. SE Ranking: Best for Checking Local Web Traffic & Rankings
- 4. Google Search Console: Best for Searching Website Traffic Keywords
- 5. Serpstat: Best for Competitor Keyword Analysis
- 6. Ahrefs: Best for Checking Web Traffic on Multiple Search Engines
- 7. Similarweb: Best for Checking Competitor Website Traffic
- 8. Ubersuggest: Best Low-cost Website Traffic Checker
- 9. MonsterInsights: Best for WordPress Website Traffic
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Bottom Line
Best Cheap or Free Website Traffic Checkers at a Glance
| Product | Free Plan Available | Starting Cost | Key Features | Own Site or Any Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ✓ | $108.33* |
| Any |
| Visit Semrush | ||||
 | ✓ | Free forever |
| Own |
| Visit Google Analytics | ||||
 | ✕ | From $52* |
| Any |
| Visit SE Ranking | ||||
 | ✓ | Free forever |
| Own |
| Visit Google Search Console | ||||
 | ✕ | From $50* |
| Any |
| Visit Serpstat | ||||
 | ✓ | From $108* |
| Own (free)/Any (paid) |
| Visit Ahrefs | ||||
 | ✓ | From $125* |
| Any |
| Visit Similarweb | ||||
 | ✕ | From $29 |
| Any |
| Visit Ubersuggest | ||||
 | ✓ | From $99.60 |
| Own |
| Visit MonsterInsights | ||||
*Monthly cost with annual billing or pay a higher rate month-to-month
“Website traffic” is a broad metric, and raw website traffic numbers don’t necessarily tell the tale without additional context. For example, a website may have high traffic, but the traffic may not be relevant for the company’s target keywords, providing little benefit to lead generation or sales. On the other hand, a website with lower but highly relevant traffic may generate many highly qualified leads and sales.
Website statistics reinforce the fact that getting your site to rank on Google is essential, as about 70% of web traffic flows through Google. And with Google, a positive user experience (UX) for site visitors is paramount. This is often reflected in metrics like time on site, the number of pages viewed, and conversions, such as button clicks or web form completions.
Before getting into the best cheap or free website trackers, here are some of the most important website traffic metrics to keep in mind:
- New visitors: This is the number of first-time visits to your website in a specific time frame.
- Returning visitors: These are users who have visited your site before. If customer retention, repeat sales, and continued patronage are important to your business, increasing the number of sessions per user is essential.
- Bounce rate: A “bounce” is when someone visits a page on your site but leaves without taking another action like viewing another page, interacting with something, or filling out a form. A high bounce rate could signal that your site doesn’t provide a positive UX, which can negatively affect your search ranking.
- Pages per session: This is the average number of pages viewed on your website per user session. Increasing pages per session signals that your site is helpful to site visitors. Learn more about how to engage site visitors with an SEO content marketing plan.
- Session duration: Web design statistics show that the average session duration for websites is just 45 to 54 seconds. Increasing session duration on your site indicates that your content is engaging.
- Traffic sources: Whether by device, social platform, search engine, language, or location, traffic sources show how people find your website and which channels you should focus on.
- Visitor demographics: This shows visitors’ locations by geography, as well as interests and more.
- On-page behaviors: This metric shows where your visitors browse or click on the page to identify areas of interest or UX issues.
These are the metrics you’ll find in most of the website traffic checkers below. Altogether, they inform your business website’s performance and help identify any areas for improvement based on your website marketing goals.
With these metrics in mind, read more about the best tools to monitor your website traffic below:
1. Semrush: Best Free Website Traffic Checker for Ranking on Google
Pros
- It has an all-in-one search engine marketing (SEM) solution.
- It offers two years of historical data after the base plan (the most of any platform).
- It has Semrush Academy for tutorials on all things SEO.
- It has Chrome extension (SEO Quake) for instant site and page-level data on any website you visit.
- It offers a 14-day free trial for our readers (twice the regular length).
Cons
- It only allows 10 requests per day for free.
- Its base paid plan doesn’t include historical data, content marketing tools, or Google Data Studio integration.
- It is more expensive than Ubersuggest or Serpstat—but has better data accuracy and many more tools.
Semrush comes packed with tools and features to track and monitor website traffic, find keywords to attract more visitors, and improve your search engine rankings. Here are some of the features and metrics you can monitor for any website and not just your own:
- Traffic monitoring and analysis of any website
- Monitoring of traffic sources
- Geolocation data
- Unique visitors (UV)
- Page count per visitor (PV)
- Average time per visitor
- Bounce rate
- Keyword research and SEO tools
- Mobile vs desktop traffic
Semrush provides a comprehensive suite of web traffic and SEO tools, starting with its free-forever plan.
- Free plan: Get up to 10 queries a day with data for website visits, visit duration, user behavior, user journey, geo traffic distribution, plus domain vs domain checker for up to five URLs.
- Pro plan at $108.33 per month with annual billing: Track up to five websites and 500 keywords with all of the Free plan’s metrics, and use over 20 analytics tools. Additional users cost $45/month.
- Guru plan at $208.33 per month with annual billing: Track up to 15 websites and 1,500 keywords with all of Semrush’s metrics, see two years of historical data, use Semrush’s SEO content marketing tools, and integrate Google Data Studio. Additional users cost $80/month.
- Business plan at $416.66 per month with annual billing: Track up to 40 websites and 5,000 keywords with all of Semrush’s metrics and features, plus Share of Voice metrics, API access, and migration capabilities from third-party integrations. Additional users cost $100/month.
Semrush delivers a powerful suite of tools and features that allow you to do a deep dive into your competitor’s keywords and search ranking and your website’s visitors. The website traffic analysis tools provide insights on how many visitors are coming to your site, where they’re coming from, and how long they spend on your site.
Additionally, you can view how many visitors are coming from mobile or desktop environments, the time they’re spending on your site, and many on-page behaviors, like click rates and browsing. Furthermore, Semrush offers powerful tools for analyzing your competitors’ website ranking and traffic.
In addition to web traffic, Semrush is an all-in-one search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing tool for ranking higher on Google. Apart from Google itself, analysis shows that it is one of the best site traffic checkers because it consistently provides accurate search volume data, allowing you to increase your digital brand awareness.
This data is not limited only to your website. In fact, you can get detailed metrics for any website, unlike Google Analytics or Search Console, which limit results to your domain only. This extends beyond traffic into keyword rankings, backlink and website SEO audits, and Google Ads performance.
Semrush gives you comprehensive and useful information about a site’s traffic. (Source: Semrush)
To check your website traffic or that of your competitors, all you need to do is create a free Semrush account. With the free-forever account, you can make 10 queries per day. To check a website’s traffic with Semrush, input the domains you want to check in the box and click “Compare.” Input up to five URLs to easily view domain vs domain site traffic for competitors’ websites compared to yours.
Semrush is a must for anyone wanting to rank higher in Google, from tools for keyword research to content optimization, website audits, and backlink building. It’s also perhaps the best website traffic checker online that is free for use. Check out our guides to see why Semrush tops our list of the best keyword research tools and is one of the best SEO audit tools for small businesses.
2. Google Analytics: Best for Most Accurate Google Traffic Data
Pros
- Tons of information are available in the entirely free Google Analytics app.
- It has real-time and historical traffic data straight from Google.
- Google users can manage up to 100 websites.
- You can connect to Google Search Console to get keyword traffic metrics for free.
- It provides site visitor demographics like location, interests, and more.
Cons
- You can only check traffic of sites you have permission for (i.e., you can’t check competitors’ traffic).
- It requires some backend knowledge to embed tracking code in a website.
- It is not totally beginner-friendly and has no dedicated customer support on the free version.
- Premium Google Analytics 360 is too expensive for small businesses, starting at $50,000.
Google Analytics includes some fairly impressive features to help you check website traffic and monitor your online footprint. With Google Analytics, you have the following features that you can measure:
- Traffic source
- Number of visitors (UV)
- Session duration
- Visitor demographics
- Bounce rate
- On-page behaviors
- Google Analytics (Free Version): Google Analytics is free to use up to 10 million hits (interactions) per month, which is more than enough for virtually any small or medium-sized business. If your site traffic exceeds this, to continue using Google Analytics, you’ll have to enroll in the extremely expensive
- Google Analytics 360 (GA360) starting at $50,000 a month: This high-end solution is suitable only for companies exceeding $1,000,000 in yearly sales revenue.
If you want to check website traffic for free, Google Analytics (GA) is a free tool that shows accurate traffic data from users interacting with your website. You can use Google Analytics to track session duration, bounce rates, the traffic source, where your viewers are coming from (organic, referral, email, or advertising traffic), what your audience is interested in, demographics, site visitor behaviors, and more.
However, it won’t provide data for other websites, nor is it meant to be an all-around marketing tool. To get data about keywords driving traffic to your site, you’ll need to integrate tools like Search Console. We also recommend pairing it with a free traffic checker like Semrush, which can give you estimates of traffic for competitors’ sites. Still, GA is one of the best traffic analysis tools for pure, accurate, user-driven data.
The Google Analytics dashboard (Source: Google Support)
Keep in mind that Google Analytics has a bit of a learning curve, including for setup, and isn’t as beginner-friendly as other traffic-checking tools like Semrush or Ubersuggest. That being said, it is a critical component for ranking on Google for small businesses. You also won’t get dedicated customer support with the free version.
Regarding how to check website traffic, setting up a Google Analytics account is fairly straightforward. Head to Google Analytics and create a free account. From there, you’ll need to set up data collection from your website by embedding the provided tracking code into your website’s header or adding your tracking ID to the appropriate setting in your website’s content management system (CMS).
3. SE Ranking: Best for Checking Local Web Traffic & Rankings
Pros
- You can see local web traffic keyword rankings for a specific city or zip code locations.
- It has inexpensive paid plans—customize for the way you want to use it to save money.
- You can check traffic and rankings on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and YouTube.
- It has an intuitive interface and super beginner-friendly recommendations, tutorials, and insights.
Cons
- Its cheapest plan only updates your traffic rankings weekly.
- Its base plan’s limits are quite a bit lower than Semrush’s—for comparable plans for heavy users, Semrush may be more cost effective.
- Its SEO content editor requires an add-on.
- It has no browser extension, unlike Semrush or Ubersuggest.
SE Ranking is primarily a keyword research and SEO tool. However, it includes powerful website traffic tools to determine how much traffic your site is getting and where it’s coming from. As a special benefit to small businesses, SE Ranking offers localized search insights. Here are some of the features of SE Ranking:
- Traffic volume monitoring
- Traffic forecast
- Connection to Google Search Console and Google Analytics
- Keyword research and rank tracking
- Backlink analysis
- Site performance audits
- On-page SEO tracker
- SERP checker analysis
- Competitive research
For the most part, SE Ranking pricing is based on the number of websites you want to track and the number of users who need access to your data. For example, if you are tracking five websites and have three users, the Pro Plan is what you need. Here are the highlights regarding SE Ranking plans:
- Essential $52 per month with annual billing: This allows one user, with an additional $20 per added user. Track up to 10 projects with five competitors each, 500 keywords, site audits, 10–20 on-page SEO analysis/month, and monitor backlinks; get up to 100 reports per day; and create custom reports.
- Pro at $95.20 per month with annual billing: This allows three users, with an additional $20 per added user. There are data for unlimited projects, up to 2,000 keywords, three months’ historical data, and site audits for up to three users. Also, get up to 5,000 reports per day, backlink monitoring, custom reports, white labeling, and a keyword database of up to 17,500.
- Business $207.20 per month with annual billing: This allows up to five users, with an additional $20 per added user. You can work on unlimited projects, up to 5,000 keywords, and site audits for up to 10 users. Get up to 10,000 reports per day and all available historical data, plus custom reports, white labeling, and API integrations.
When you connect SE Ranking to your Google Search Console and Google Analytics accounts, you get a super-charged traffic and raking monitor. It provides in-depth information about where your traffic is coming from, including robust location data presented in a user-friendly format that novices can understand. That includes the very useful ability for small businesses to sort target data down to the city and zip code level. You can also toggle on a Google map to see results in a visual format.
In fact, virtually everything about SE Ranking is designed to create the most beginner-friendly all-in-one platform. That includes its keyword and SEO recommendations, tutorials, and marketing plan that are easy to understand and implement, even if you’re new to SEO.
How to check website traffic on SE Ranking at the local level (Source: SE Ranking)
SE Ranking’s ability to provide hyper-local web traffic and keyword data sets it apart, making it one of the best tools for local SEO, especially. Take advantage of the 14-day free trial to see how easy it is to check website traffic on your site and those of your competitors, then customize your plan’s features and payment options to save money.
4. Google Search Console: Best for Searching Website Traffic Keywords
Pros
- It has accurate and free keyword data for keywords driving your web traffic on Google.
- It integrates with Google Analytics to provide your data in one interface.
- It includes a backlink analysis tool.
- Website optimizer identifies issues on your website, such as page and server errors.
Cons
- Like GA, it only provides data from your sites (no competitor website data).
- It has a limited amount of data shown, like top 1,000 backlinks and limited health issues—for more in-depth data, use Semrush’s site audit tools.
- It only tracks Google data—for keyword data from other search engines, try Ahrefs.
Google Search Console (GSC) provides a suite of tools to monitor and track website traffic, as well as website performance. Here are a few of those tools:
- Website traffic monitoring
- Tracking of website traffic sources
- Site performance audits for mobile users
- Keywords analysis
- Backlink analysis
- Total impressions tracking
- Audience insights
Google Search Console is free to use on your websites.
If you are wondering how to check website traffic for free, look no further than Google Analytics. While Google Analytics is focused on providing insights on website traffic, user engagement, and other internal web page metrics, Google Search Console is designed to look at search engine rankings and visibility.
Google Search Console is a must to integrate when you want to know exactly which keywords bring visitors to your website and where your content ranks for your target keywords. That’s because providers like Semrush rely on highly accurate estimates of keyword data and traffic, while Search Console taps directly into Google’s own data records to produce reports. This makes it the most accurate tool for measuring website performance based on keyword data.
Check search engine data from Google Search Console’s interface. (Source: Google Search Console)
To ensure Google fully indexes your website, generate and submit an XML sitemap (see definition below) into GSC (you can use a free tool such as Semrush to create your sitemap). To access even more data, like insights on new and returning site visitors, bounce rates, and the time spent on your website, link Search Console to your Google Analytics account. This way, you can view everything on one interface.
Aside from comprehensive keyword data, Search Console also shows backlinks, total impressions, the pages that bring the most traffic to your website, and audience insights. Though it does not provide competitor insights like Semrush and SE Ranking, Google Search Console is still an important tool for understanding how potential customers are finding your site.
5. Serpstat: Best for Competitor Keyword Analysis
Pros
- It has a full suite of advanced SEO tools, a site traffic checker, plus backlink and content analysis features.
- You can view up to three URLs with the domain-vs-domain feature.
- It offers affordable pricing for small businesses.
Cons
- It has no free plan, only a seven-day free trial.
- It is not as user-friendly as Ahrefs or Similarweb.
- Semrush has more accurate keyword data.
- Domain-vs-domain tool only tracks keywords, not overall traffic data.
Serpstat includes a number of tools to help you monitor and grow your website traffic, such as the following:
- Traffic monitoring and analysis
- Keyword rank tracking
- Competitor keyword traffic
- Organic and keyword analysis
- Website analysis
- Backlink analysis
- Rank tracking
- Site performance audits
- SERP position checker
- Competitor ranking reports
- Reports
- Desktop and mobile rankings
While Serpstat doesn’t offer a free plan, its paid plans have comprehensive tools for search optimization starting at $50 a month. Here’s what you get with Serpstat’s free and paid plans:
- Individual at $50 a month with annual billing: This includes traffic monitoring your website, 100 searches per day, 2,000 website analysis results per report, 2,000 backlink analysis results per report, rank tracker and site audit for up to five sites, and two months’ historical data retention.
- Team at $100 with annual billing: This includes traffic monitoring for your website, 500 searches per day, 10,000 website analysis and backlink analysis results per report, rank tracker and site audit for up to 25 sites, 50,000 position checks per month, and 10 months’ historical data retention.
- Agency at $410 a month with annual billing: This includes traffic monitoring for your website, 5,000 searches per day, 100,000 website analysis and backlink analysis results per report, rank tracker and site audit for up to 250 sites, and 100 months’ historical data retention.
While some tools like Google Search Console can provide a deep dive into the keywords driving your site’s traffic, you’re often in the dark when it comes to competitor traffic. That’s where a tool like Serpstat comes in. With Serpstat, you can track keyword data and traffic for up to three URLs, and it also has an in-depth backlink checker to see which websites are directing the most visitors to competitors.
Beyond these features, Serpstat offers some of the most exhaustive SEO analysis tools of any platform. It has features for search engine results ranking, historical data, backlink analysis, site surveying, and competitor insight. Its plans offer advanced SEO analysis tools that provide high volumes of results, from keyword research and rank tracking to pay-per-click (PPC) ad results, backlink analysis, and site auditing.
See a comprehensive report on paid and organic keywords that drive traffic to your competitors. (Source: Serpstat)
All this complexity is not to say that Serpstat can’t work as a basic website traffic analysis tool. Simply input a URL in the main search bar, and an overview of the website comes up, complete with visibility, estimated search traffic, and organic and paid keywords. Scroll to the bottom of the “Overview” page, and you’ll also find a list of competitors and examples of paid ads for the requested domain. Find out if Serpstat is right for you with a seven-day free trial.
6. Ahrefs: Best for Checking Web Traffic on Multiple Search Engines
Pros
- You can see traffic for 10 platforms, including Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Amazon.
- It has a free-forever plan to check traffic, keywords, backlinks, and SEO for your website.
- It is beginner-friendly and intuitive.
- It has an all-in-one solution that starts at a cheaper cost than Semrush.
- You can add additional users to any plan for a per-user fee.
Cons
- You can’t check competitors’ site data on the free version, only your sites.
- It has no free trial for paid plans.
- Its first paid plan shows cached (not fresh) SERPs in results.
- A costly second-tier plan ($208/month) is needed to get more than six months of historical data (costs less with Semrush).
- It has less accurate data than Google Analytics or Semrush.
Depending on which plan you choose, here are some of the website traffic monitoring and features of Ahrefs:
- Traffic monitoring with GSC and GA
- Multi-Search Engine dashboard: high-level view of your website’s performance on Google, Bing, and more
- Keyword explorer
- SERP comparison
- Backlink analysis
- Rank tracking
- Site performance audits
- Competitive analysis
- Domain and country comparisons
Ahrefs plans vary in cost based on the features you need and the amount of historical data you want to access. Here is a breakdown of the plans:
- Free-forever plan: This includes Ahrefs Webmaster Tools offering a webmaster account to gain insight on backlinks, SEO, and keywords on multiple websites, plus monthly report summaries sent to your account.
- Lite plan at $129/$108 per month with monthly/annual billing: This includes all of the Free plan’s tools plus site audit, dashboard with insights on keywords and backlinks, and data on other sites.
- Standard plan $249/$208 per month with monthly/annual billing: This includes all Free and Lite features, plus six months of web traffic data, ranking position history, fresh SERPs, and content marketing tools.
- Advanced plan at $449/$374 per month with monthly/annual billing: This includes all the features of Free, Lite, and Standard plus two years of web traffic data and Google Data Studio integration.
- Enterprise plan for a custom price on an annual contract basis: This includes all of the above features plus unlimited history, a directory listing for your agency, and the ability to pay manually by invoice.
Ahrefs is a popular all-in-one tool for SEO and content marketing. One of the chief features of Ahrefs is its ability to monitor website traffic from multiple sources. With paid plans on Ahrefs, you’re not limited to just traffic data from Google, you can tap into Bing, Yahoo, Amazon, and more for a more rounded picture of your web traffic. Because it connects to sites like Amazon, Ahrefs is an excellent tool for ecommerce websites in particular.
The platform is known for its modern, user-friendly interface, and it offers a lot of easily digestible guides to using the tools and ranking higher on Google. If you need a free website traffic checker, keep in mind that the tools that come in the free version are limited—as is your data. There’s no historical data or data from search engines other than Google. As with SE Ranking and Semrush, simply connect Google Analytics and Google Search Console, and Ahrefs will pull that data into your dashboard.
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Upgrading to the first paid plan, Lite, extends the amount of data available as well as the tools you can use. With this plan, you can check website traffic and get data on competitors’ sites in addition to your own. It also includes a keyword explorer to easily optimize your website, site auditing tools, alerts, and the ability to track your rankings across multiple search engines.
We love Ahref’s interface, especially in the free version. If you’re looking to check the traffic for your own website with a particular focus on your backlink data, this is a great place to start. You’ll get accurate data since it’s connected to your Google Analytics account, tips for using Ahrefs right in the dashboard, and loads of articles on the Ahrefs Academy blog.
7. Similarweb: Best for Checking Competitor Website Traffic
Pros
- It is intuitive and easy-to-use for comparing traffic data, with data for traffic, engagement, ranking, and demographics.
- It has comprehensive traffic and engagement data.
- You can monitor your website traffic vs your competitors, plus engagement statistics, market share, and user behavior.
Cons
- Comparable paid plans are more expensive than Semrush.
- It is not as beginner-friendly as Ubersuggest.
- Exporting data requires a paid plan.
- History is limited to three months on the first paid plan—it requires a custom-level plan for 12-plus months (Semrush offers this in its second tier).
Similarweb includes a host of features to check website traffic, such as the following:
- Tracking of website visitors
- Tracking of visitor location
- Historical data viewing
- Monitoring of website performance
- Keyword analysis
- Custom industries
Similarweb offers one of the more robust website traffic checking tools. You can access demographics, location information, keyword volume, ad search results, and more. Similarweb offers a few free tools to try, but you’ll most likely want to subscribe for more features. Here’s what you get with Similarweb’s paid plans:
- Free Tools: This includes a website traffic checker, keyword generator, website verifier, SERP seismograph, app analytics.
- Starter at $125 a month, billed annually: This includes website traffic analysis, website vs website comparison, 100 websites per report, up to 1,000 keywords per report, three months of historical data, worldwide geographic view (no filtering by country), and keyword analysis.
- Professional at $333 a month, billed annually: This includes all of Starter, plus 500 website results per report, 5,000 keywords per report, and six months of historical data.
- Team (Custom pricing): This includes all of Professional and Starter, plus 10,000 websites per report, 50,000 keywords per report, 15 months of historical data, worldwide or local country filter, and 10 custom industries.
- Enterprise (Custom pricing): This includes all of the above, plus unlimited websites per report, 150,000 keywords per report, 37 months of historical data, 50 custom industries, conversion analysis, and more.
Similarweb is an in-depth website traffic checker to track competitor data such as traffic, keywords, and demographics. This gives you a powerful method of gauging where you stack up against your competition—and how you can better compete for visitors.
Its tools provide access to a site’s traffic overview, detailing visits (on both desktop and mobile), engagement, and top traffic sources. You also see which social platforms are directing the most traffic to each URL and a breakdown of its audience. To get more details on social media, ads, and keywords driving traffic to monitored websites, you’ll have to upgrade to a premium plan.
Easily check and analyze traffic with Similarweb’s comprehensive and free traffic checker. (Source: Similarweb)
In addition to the basic metrics like the number of website visitors, Similarweb provides a full breakdown of a site’s audience and traffic strategy for up to 100 URLs at a time on the base plan and more on higher tiers of service. This makes it one of the most comprehensive tools for checking your competition.
Unlike other tools on this list, Similarweb’s starter plan focuses almost exclusively on website traffic and doesn’t present its users with too much SEO analysis or data. If you’re looking for a more well-rounded analytics tool, use Semrush. But if you’re only looking to check a site’s traffic for free with a user-friendly interface, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything more comprehensive than Similarweb.
8. Ubersuggest: Best Low-cost Website Traffic Checker
Pros
- It has affordable plans from $29 monthly.
- It has a simple competitor analysis feature.
- It integrates with Google Analytics.
- It has a Chrome extension for SEO data while browsing other websites.
- Lifetime license options are available (cost is only 10x monthly price).
Cons
- Plan features and limits are all lower than comparable platforms like those of Semrush and Ahrefs; however, the cost is far lower too.
- It has a steep learning curve.
- It has no free plan, only a seven-day free trial.
Ubersuggest provides beginner-friendly website tracking and SEO tools for a reasonable price. Features include the following:
- Daily searches on a single domain
- Keyword tracking
- Keyword research
- Competitor insights
- Daily page scans
- Rank tracking
- Site audits
- Backlink monitoring and reporting
Ubersuggest offers three tiers of paid plans, in addition to some paid add-ons for improved experience and additional functionality. Here are the features you get with each plan:
- Individual at $29 a month or $290 for lifetime access: This includes up to 150 daily searches on one domain, 125 tracked keywords, insights on five competitors, and 1,000 page scans.
- Business at $49 a month or $490 for lifetime access: This includes up to 300 daily searches, seven domains, 150 tracked keywords, 10 competitors, and 5,000 page scans.
- Enterprise at $99 a month or $990 for lifetime access: This includes up to 900 daily searches, 15 domains, 200 tracked keywords, 15 competitors, and 10,000 page scans.
- Add-ons: For an additional $5 per month for each add-on, you can get 500 more daily searches, additional domains, 250 more tracked keywords, additional competitor domains, and additional users.
Ubersuggest is an SEO and website tracking tool with plans starting at $29 per month. Uniquely, it also allows you to pay a one-time fee equivalent to 10 months of any plan’s fee for lifetime access. Whether you’re looking at a monthly plan or the one-time lifetime access, Ubersuggest is the least expensive website traffic tool.
You can check web traffic for a URL without signing up, but to get more keyword suggestions, daily rank tracking, and personalized SEO suggestions, you’ll have to register. Ubersuggest is pretty basic, but it gives you an overview of a site’s traffic in an attractive and user-friendly interface.
Aside from overall traffic, it breaks down the data by the pages of your site generating the most visits, the social platforms that point to the pages, keywords they rank for, and backlinks. It also rates each of these metrics to easily tell if your site is doing well. Click on any of these, and you’ll get a more comprehensive view of the data.
Ubersuggest’s free website tracker tool (Source: Ubersuggest)
Ubersuggest’s plans offer the same basic features as Ahrefs and Similarweb, but with higher output ranges at more affordable prices. This traffic checker also gives a pretty in-depth look into a site’s top SEO pages and keywords. Ubersuggest bases the rankings of these pages and keywords on data from Google Analytics and Search Console, so if you’re looking for metrics related to other search engines (like Microsoft Bing), we recommend using Ahrefs instead.
The features and depth of reporting make Ubersuggest a decent all-around web traffic analysis tool for small businesses starting out with web traffic analysis and digital marketing. You can get started on any plan with a seven-day free trial, or you can dive right in with a lifetime plan starting at just $290—cheaper than a single month of premium service from some competitors.
9. MonsterInsights: Best for WordPress Website Traffic
Pros
- You can check website traffic from the WordPress dashboard.
- It has advanced analytics like outbound and affiliate link tracking, file download, telephone, and email tracking.
- It has unlimited page views and users for all plans.
- It offers a 14-day money-back guarantee—get a full refund if it doesn’t work for you.
Cons
- MonsterInsights’ analytics are sourced from Google Analytics.
- Plugin only works on WordPress-hosted websites.
- It has no free plan or free trial available, and plans are only on an annual—not monthly—basis.
MonsterInsights is a WordPress plugin that connects with Google Analytics to provide real-time traffic analysis right from the WordPress dashboard. Features include the following:
- Google Analytics dashboard
- WooCommerce analytics
- Form conversion tracking
- Event tracking in WordPress
MonsterInsights offers three tiers of its plugin, depending on the features you need and the number of websites you’re managing. Here’s what you’ll get with MonsterInsight’s plans:
- Plus plan at $99.50 annually: This includes in-depth insights for one WordPress website, unlimited page views and users, standard web traffic analytics, historical data, real-time analytics, and URL and media tracking.
- Pro plan at $199.50 annually: This includes all of Plus in addition to insights for up to five websites, along with advanced analytics, third-party integrations, unlimited page views and users, tracking and reports for ecommerce, form conversions, and keywords, plus user journey data.
- Agency plan at $399.50 annually: This includes all of the above features plus insights for up to 25 websites, advanced access control, management for clients’ licenses (particularly helpful for agencies), and WordPress support.
MonsterInsights is a website traffic checker plugin for WordPress, allowing you to view your web traffic data and insights directly within your WordPress dashboard. As a plugin, MonsterInsights doesn’t function as a standalone platform, meaning it’s for WordPress-based websites only. Because it integrates directly into the WordPress dashboard, it’s the easiest and best way to monitor your website traffic if you are managing a WordPress website.
MonsterInsights sources its standard traffic data, such as visitor count, engagement, and user insights, from Google Analytics. However, it also offers a wide range of advanced insights, such as ecommerce tracking, outbound and affiliate link tracking, tracking for forms, media, telephone, and email links on most of its plans.
A snapshot of the dashboard of MonsterInsights’ WordPress plugin (Source: MonsterInsights)
MonsterInsights’ features don’t include SEO tools or website comparison department, making it a pretty meager offering compared to the likes of Semrush or Serpstat. It does, however, offer some of the most comprehensive tools for how to check website traffic, which is helpful for measuring and growing any WordPress website. At only $99.50 a year, it’s also one of the more affordable ways to look up website traffic.
When considering how to check website traffic, we looked for the best combinations of cost, data accuracy, features, and the ability to check traffic on competitor sites as well as your own. We evaluated each of these tools’ free and (in most cases) paid plan features firsthand. In addition, we also relied on the decades of experience our team has using these tools to check website traffic for their own sites as well as the sites of dozens of small businesses.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Your site’s traffic is only half of the picture when it comes to analyzing your site’s ability to rank higher on Google than your competitors. You also need to know how well your competitors’ sites are performing and where they’re getting traffic from. Comparing this data shows you where they are lacking, opportunities you’re missing out on, and what you can do to improve your own website and increase your visitors and views.
It’s easy to check website rankings and traffic with tools like Semrush. It’s an accurate and robust tool that also shows data on your competitors’ sites, which Google Analytics doesn’t do. Another great option to consider is SE Ranking because it’s one of the few tools to provide traffic metrics at the local level, which makes it ideal for small businesses wanting to grow their local customer base.
For the most complete and accurate data about your website in a free website traffic checker, combine the use of Google Analytics and Search Console. For insights on competitors, we recommend Semrush’s free plan to check website traffic and keyword rankings. You can even combine these solutions to compare your domain vs competitors to find ways to increase your Google rankings.
Bottom Line
Learning how to check website traffic is the best way to track your site’s performance. However, while tracking it is easy, growing it is more complicated because of the many strategies involved, from searching for the right keywords to generating backlinks. Thankfully, these strategies are made easier with the all-in-one website checkers and analytics tools available, and two of the best we recommend for small businesses are Semrush and Google Analytics.
Semrush is a complete SEO solution that not only checks website traffic, but also gives you insight on how to improve all aspects of your online presence. Meanwhile, Google Analytics is the most reliable source for improving your site’s ranking on Google, giving you a highly accurate read on your traffic, audience, and search engine ranking. Both are free to start and are must-haves for tracking and growing your website.
